Camerimage 2014

Eden, screened out of competition at Camerimage 2014, is one of the first cinematographic attempts at capturing the “rave party” scene and the birth of the French Touch musical movement in the 1990s and its ensuing international success. This conversation with Denis Lenoir, AFC, ASC, focuses on this sociologically very “French” biopic whose main character was mostly inspired by director Mia Hansen-Løve’s own brother. (FR)

Because Volker Schlöndorff’s Diplomacy, cinematography by Michel Amathieu, was recently selected to compete in the “European Panorama” section of the 22^nd Camerimage Festival, we are publishing below an interview in which the director of photography discusses his work on the film, which was released in cinemas on 5 March 2014.

During the closing ceremony of the 22^nd Camerimage Festival, which took place on Saturday, 22 December 2014 at the Auditorium of the Opera Nova of Bygdoszcz (Poland), the international jury awarded the Golden Frog to the film Leviathan, by Andrey Zvyagintsev, cinematography by Mikhail Krichman, RGC. The award for Best 3D Fiction Film was awarded to The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, cinematography by Thomas Hardmeier, AFC.

After working on a gangster movie written by Nick Cave, a biblical movie based on a story by Oscar Wilde, and a spy movie based on a story by John le Carré, Benoît Delhomme, AFC, just filmed the biopic dedicated to the life of Stephen Hawking and his romance with his first wife, Jane. A film by James Marsh, a British director of documentaries who received an Oscar in 2007 for Man on Wire. (F.R.)

Both of the last two productions that Steven Poster participated in were filmed in very different conditions. They are both about to be released in the United States. The first is Amityville: the Awakening, by Franck Khalfoun, the twelfth film of the series to be dedicated to America’s most famous haunted house. A horror film in the most pure tradition of the genre, alternating interiors and exteriors, with most of it shot at nighttime, of course.

Looking back at the beginnings of his career and his education, Phedon Papamichael admits that he didn’t attend a cinema school. “I was originally a photographer, and I learned to make movies on the job, by filming lots of short films using the Éclair 16 camera that I owned at the time.” Bit by bit, he went from short films to feature-length films under the guidance of Roger Corman of Concorde Pictures, for whom, beginning in 1989, he signed off on a number of low-budget B series films produced in a fortnight. At that time, he began to work with a number of his future colleagues, Raphel Sanchez, who was a key grip and later became a gaffer, Wally Pfister, who is one of his sparks, and Janusz Kaminski, who was also working as a gaffer at that time.

In a filmed interview, cinematographer Michael Seresin, BSC, discusses his philosophy and his passion for lighting, he mentions the advantages of Cameraimage’s diversity, continues with his experiences on shooting a film in digital. He misses film…, the most important thing is to tell a story.

In a filmed interview, cinematographer Nancy Schreiber discusses her experience at Cameraimage, her concerns regarding the increased accessibility of the profession and the loss of craftsmanship that this has engendered. She ends the interview with her fears regarding the loss of control over the integrity of the image from its production to the final version.

This round table, moderated by Benjamin B., brought together cinematographers Matthew Libatique, ASC and Dick Pope, BSC, Steadicam operator Thomas English, gaffer Helmut Prein, focus-puller John Bailie, and DIT Peter Marsden, in order to discuss the various steps in the work of the image team and their implications.

Seizing the opportunity of Cameraimage, Arri Rental organized the first public try-outs of its Alexa 65 camera within the framework of a workshop led by Spanish cinematographer Daniel Vilar.

Camerimage 2014.

In a filmed interview in English, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, discusses what, according to him, has changed in the way that one makes movies nowadays.